This collection of sources and quotations offers a panorama of the downside of the human condition, human conduct, and human nature: vanity, errors, sins, limitations, illusions, vulnerability, stupidity, inanity, misunderstanding, ignorance, self-deception, cruelty and much more, at individual, group, institutional and societal levels. Quotes—some may better be called excerpts—are selected from classics from around the world, from antiquity onward. To provide the widest coverage, it also samples contemporary works including college textbooks and trade books in two dozen fields or academic disciplines, highlighting history, literature and philosophy. Toward the same goal, it dips into published collections of quotes—as bibliographic record as much as for their insights—and borrows from wits and aphorists both well-known and obscure, providing a showcase for their labors and fancy, for this is, after all, mostly a compendium of human folly and worse. The serious general reader, college students and faculty will find much to ponder in these quotes and excerpts. You may even find inspiration in this, among other things, anti-self-help collection.
